Trend Alert: States Are Restoring More Psychiatric Patients’ Gun Rights

Across the country, states are increasingly allowing people who have lost their firearm rights due to mental illness to petition to have them restored. More than 20 states have passed legislation allowing this to occur.

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Across the country, states are increasingly allowing people who have lost their firearm rights due to mental illness to petition to have them restored. More than 20 states have passed legislation allowing this to occur.

Dozens of cases have shown that the process for determining whether a person is no longer a threat to public safety is governed by vague standards and few specific requirements, the New York Times reports. States mostly entrust these decisions to judges who are ill-equipped to investigate the petitioner’s mental health.

There have reportedly been multiple instances over the last decade in which people who won back their gun rights were later charged with or convicted of violent gun-related crimes.